Detroit has proved to be one of the most popular pizza styles across the U.S. The tender, yet chewy crumb and racing-stripe sauce add to its appeal, but there’s no denying that the real magic is in the crispy cheese crown that towers above the edges of the pizza. It seems only a matter of time before the Frico transcends Detroit pizza altogether and pops up on other styles.

These blackened, lacy edges can be traced back to Buddy’s Pizza, the iconic pizzeria credited with creating what we now call Detroit-style pizza. In 1946, the owners – Gus Guerra and his wife, Anna – were looking for something new to add to their menu. They came up with a variation on Sicilian pizza with a show-stopping cheese crown. The lore behind this style is that Buddy’s used a blue steel pan originally meant to hold small auto manufacturing parts. With an abundance of such trays in Motor City, it was probably a simple matter of convenience and supply. It’s this very pan – deep with thick steel sides – that help create the beautiful cheese crown. Ironically, those blue steel pans so key to the style’s creation are now nearly impossible to find. Luckily, other pans exist to help mimic the originals.

Frico For Non-Detroit Styles

As a person who doesn’t adhere to the exact constructs of specific pizza styles, I love seeing the Frico edge pop up outside of Detroit pizza. I’ve never made Detroit pizza at my shop, but I do put a crispy cheese crust on our Grandma pies. The pizza I make is a variation of the pan pizza my mom used to make. It’s her version of a pan pie, coated with a sesame-seed bottom. When I was workshopping this pizza to make at my restaurant, cheese that pooled over the edge and caramelized in the oven was a natural addition. The sesame seeds turn crunchy and buttery in the oven, and the crispy cheese edge makes the pizza almost decadent. Looking around, I see this feature elsewhere, too – especially on round pan pies. At Chicago-based Milly’s Pizza in the Pan, you can find a cheesy layer lurking along the round crust of what the owner, Robert Maleski, calls a Chicago pan pizza.

It might look easy, but getting the perfect frico crust takes more than just sprinkling some extra cheese on the edge of your pan pie. Like anything extraordinary, it’s all in the details. Creating a consistently great cheese crown really comes down to the cheese, the fat, the pan and the tools.

Cheese Frico

Traditionally, Wisconsin brick cheese was used to create the caramelized edges. This high-fat cheese has a buttery, salty flavor with a good amount of tang. Mozzarella has become a more common addition to the cheese blend. The amount of cheese you use is extremely important. Nicole Bean of Pizaro’s Pizza Napoletana in Houston agrees that finding the right balance of cheeses is essential. She says, “Low-moisture mozzarella is helpful building a frico. There’s debate on which brand – and even if pre-shred makes a difference on it. I think it truly depends on what you’re looking for in your frico.”

The shape of the cheese can impact your final product as well. Shredded cheese is a great option, but also consider using sliced cheese that you layer along the sides – or cut and cubed cheese. This is how Maleski creates his crispy crust at Milly’s. “I use part-skim, low-moisture mozzarella. I think the whole milk releases just a little too much grease and have found that skim works better. I buy them in block form, and we slice them ourselves. We do one-ounce slices. The trick is to layer the slices so they run up the side of the pan.”

While you want a crispy crown, Maleski points out that it’s important not to overcook the pizza, since it can cause the frico to taste bitter and burned.

Pan Pizza

The cheese works in tandem with the pan. The traditional blue steel pans with black surfaces are similar to a cast iron, with the black being better at conducting heat and essentially frying the cheese edge as the pizza cooks. The slightly sloped edges help to create the shelf of caramelized, lacy cheese. While these pans are very hard to come by nowadays, there are some good alternatives.

Once you find the right pan for your frico, don’t forget the fat. A good amount of fat should be used along the bottom and sides of the pan – not only to help with the release of the frico but to help fry it and give it shape and flavor. I’m a big fan of olive oil, but depending on what you’re going for, butter, Crisco or even good old-fashioned grease works really well – or try a combination of a few coatings. Maleski first rubs the entire pan with Crisco and then sprays Pam along the edge of the pan where the frico will touch. He says, “When I first started, it was incredibly challenging to free the pizzas from the pan. Since I discovered the combo of Crisco and Pam, I have never had any issues with the pizza sticking; it comes out like butter.”

Releasing Pizza From the Pan

Once you determine which pan to use and the grease you prefer, the next thing to consider is how to go get it out of the pan. “Choose the right tools to remove your Detroits to preserve the frico as much as possible,” Bean says. “I’ve seen a variety of things: metal dough scrapers or even putty scrapers, beveled spatulas, plastic or metal spatulas, flexi scrapers.”

There’s something about a caramelized cheese frico that is irresistible – both to eat and photograph. While Detroit-style pizza is as popular as ever, the Frico edge itself has taken on a life of its own. Using the right tools, cheese, pans and process, there’s really no limit to putting a frico on your own version of pan pizza.

Audrey Kelly owns Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage in Boulder, Colorado.

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If variety is the spice of life, then cheese is what makes life interesting. There are more than 1,800 recognized types of cheese in the world with classifications from fresh, semi-soft to hard, flavored and blue.

The global cheese market is massive and is projected to reach $151 billion by 2027. Cheese is big business in the U.S. as purveyors, distributors and restaurateurs have their eyes on the Chicago Mercantile cheese block pricing.

As you try to leverage prices with your food costs, cheese is a major factor. It’s not just finding the best cheese for your product, but also balancing portioning and flavor. That’s why innovation and creativity are key in 2023. Pizza chefs look to take the coveted element of the holy trinity of pizza and find new and interesting varieties to stand out in a flood of competition.

Consumers too expect new and interesting cheese from the restaurants they frequent. They are being inundated with a greater cheese variety than ever before. They are willing to experiment with cheese themselves thanks to social media inspiration, like TikTok’s cheese obsession with a barrage of cheese-based food challenges. What can a pizzeria owner learn from this? You can go outside of the box with the cheese you select on pizza.

In February, expert judges evaluated 2,249 dairy products at the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in search of the nation’s best. An aged Gouda hailing from Bantam, Connecticut took the top honor. An artisan hard cheese was first runner up and medium cheddar took second runner up. Will one of these stars become the cheese of the year and spark new interest in their cheese types? Gouda is already a beloved cheese in pizza restaurants. An aged Gouda has more of a Parmesan texture and feel with more depth of its rich and nutty flavor.

Or will the next big cheese sensation come from one of the many consumer interest pieces that have gone viral. TasteAtlas recently ranked the 100 Best Rated Cheeses in the World. It’s top five included Parmigiano Reggiano, Gorgonzola piccante, Burrata, Grana Padano and Oaxaca Cheese. Italian cheeses scored high on the list. In fact, 14 of the list’s Top 40 are Italian cheeses.

In the retail space, top cheese performers are cheddar, cream cheese, processed cheese product, mozzarella, Colby/jack and cheddar/jack according to IRI WorldWide. Does what’s happening in the grocery isle translate to the pizzeria?

Location matters when it comes to cheese preferences. Zippia conducted data crunching in Google Trends to find out every state’s favorite cheese. The Deep South seems to love cream cheese and queso bianco while Feta won over Vermont and Massachusetts. While these lists are fun, they lead to a resource that you have available at your disposal to evaluate what people are searching for in your area. So, you can see if a cheese you want to introduce is on the radar of people in your state or region. Go to trends.google.com/ and compare cheese types that you currently menu and those that you are researching to add. It’s a good metric to understand how a new cheese may perform on your menu.

We’ve been tracking what’s happening with cheese trends all over the industry, from operator surveys and pizzeria new menu launches to trade show trends and boots-on-the-ground conversations with owners and pizza chefs. Here are our cheese findings for 2023 and beyond.

Mozzarella reigns supreme! But, in which form?

The king of all pizza cheese is mozzarella. Typically, it’s a whole-milk or part-skim mozzarella that creates that signature cheese pull. But today’s pizza fans are craving more from mozzarella, thanks in part to a few mozzarella styles making their way into the mainstream at fast-casual pizza chains. Fresh mozzarella, Fior di Latte, ovoline, perlini, Stracciatella, mozzarella di Bufala and burrata are increasing their reach. Once reserved for Italian, Neapolitan and artisan pizzerias, fresh mozzarella varieties are becoming star ingredients on many pizza styles from Detroit, Standard American to New York and Pan.

Burrata is having its moment.

While, yes, burrata is a form of mozzarella, it seems to be in a class of its own with pizza fans. Burrata’s popularity is being aided by TikTok and Instagram’s fascination with the beautiful cheese. Its presentation wows customers with a whole burrata sitting atop a piping hot pizza. It’s interactive as one cuts into the burrata and its contents made up of Stracciatella spread over the pizza. For great burrata pizza ideas, check out Editor in Chief Jeremy White’s story “Burrata Baby”.

Plant-based Cheese is here to stay.

We can’t talk cheese trends without mentioning one of the hottest new additions to pizza menus across the country, plant-based cheeses. The dairy-free cheese comes in many forms to emulate popular pizza cheeses, as well as having a few varieties of its own. Cashew cheese is a spreadable vegan cheese that some operators are creating in house. At International Pizza Expo, plant-based cheese is one of the most-sought after items on the show floor as pizzeria owners seek to find the right plant-based mozzarella and other varieties with the consistency, bake and mouth feel that matches their pizza.

Herb and flavor-infused cheeses are hitting specialty pizza menus.

Whether they are infused in or marinated with the cheese, herbs and seasoning are increasing in frequency. Infusing strong flavors like black truffle and hot peppers with mild to medium cheese varieties can help prevent the potent ingredients from overpowering a delicate pizza. Another big infused trend is smoked cheeses. You can learn more about smoked cheeses in my Kitchen story, “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Cheese”.

Pizzerias look to stretch boundaries with unique cheese blends.

Pizzerias are finding a point of distinction with new cheeses blends. Popular blends include mozzarella/provolone and mozzarella/cheddar/Parmesan. More pizzerias are creating their own custom blends. Experiment with different mix percentages of one or more of these cheeses: aged Gouda, Asiago, Swiss, fontina, gruyere, Pecorino, Monterey Jack, white cheddar or even Muenster. If there is a type of cheese that is a staple of your area, try a blend.

Pizza cheese has gone soft.

We asked pizzeria operators what toppings they have introduced/are testing to add to the pizza menu for our 2023 State of the Pizzeria Industry Report. Cheese was top of mind. Interestingly, a number of soft cheeses were listed. Cream cheese, ricotta and goat cheese stand out. Soft cheese can offer so much differentiation on pizza. Due to higher moisture, how the cheese is baked or applied post-bake must account for the added liquid.

Denise Greer is Executive Editor at Pizza Today.

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